Led by Dr Martin Sokol, GEOFIN is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (1.8m EUR).

This 5-year project examines the way in which Western banks conquered Eastern Europe following the collapse of communism. East-Central Europe is being used as a laboratory to understand how finance penetrates every nook and cranny of post-communist economies that were previously built on completely opposite principles.

The project will open up new horizons in studies of finance, its geography and its future role in society.

Financialisation, or the growing power of finance over societies and economies, is increasingly recognised as the key feature of contemporary capitalism. However, significant gaps in our understanding of this process remain. GEOFIN will pilot a novel approach based on the concept of ‘financial chains’ which are understood both as channels of value transfer and as social relations that shape socio-economic processes and attendant economic geographies.